KXPR Winter Waltz Tour

Almost recovered!

cdring — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:24:00 GMT

Well, our bunch of weary, happy travelers returned to California Monday afternoon. We capped off our trip in Vienna with a Sunday of gorgeous music. Several of us skipped the morning walking tour and made our way to the Jesuit Church to hear Schubert's German Mass. It was quite a difficult decision, since great music was being performed in churches all around the city as part of their Advent celebrations. St. Stephen's had Haydn's Rorate Coeli, St Augustin had Monteverdi's Mass for 4 voices....we chose the Jesuit Church thinking it was off the beaten path and might be less crowded. Hrmph....the church was PACKED and we spent the whole service sitting on the marble steps of one of the side chapels. Not a problem, tho, the sound was glorious. It was the original version of Schubert's Mass, with wind ensemble. The sound of those instruments rising up thru that glorious old baroque church was thrilling. Sunday evening we had an intimate concert at the Mozart house. A beautiful little room, the walls were covered with delightful frescoes....it was like sitting under a tent made of lovely tapestries. Four musicians gathered around one light and played...a Mozart Divertimento, some Handel and Pachelbel, a Mozart Quartet and, my favorite, Haydn's Emperor Quartet. A truly magical way to end our musical tour of the cities of Mozart, Strauss, Schubert, Beethoven, Dvorak and Smetana.

Vienna

cdring — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 08:49:00 GMT

Sunday morning, and I have just a few minutes before we head off to services at the old Jesuit church....they're performing the Schubert German Mass this morning. We had some real dilemnas in deciding where to go, but I'll have to fill you in later. Thought I'd try to upload at least one photo before we head out.

We went to a Strauss concert last night at the Redoutensaal in the Hofburg Palace....

More later on Salzburg, the monastery at Melk and the sights in Vienna.....

Cheryl

From Salzburg to Vienna

cdring — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 06:37:00 GMT

Sorry I've been out of touch for a couple of days, but we've been on the move. We spent two lovely days in Salzburg, walking the streets that Mozart walked. On our first night there, we attended a dinner concert in the Peterskeller, a building dating back to the 800's. Today it's restored to baroque splendor, and we enjoyed a nice meal there, with performances from Mozart operas between courses. It was lovely to wander the Christmas markets, munching roasted hazelnuts or sampling mulled wine. Our local guide, Horst, was a font of information and humor....and at 6'5 1/2" inches, he was pretty easy to keep sight of! That night, part of our group headed up to the fortress for another dinner concert, while some of us found a little local bistro, then headed to the Mirabellplatz to hear a concert of violin and piano. As it turned out, the violinist was sick, so the pianist gave us a solo piano recital instead....no complaints, tho, she played Scarlatti, Mozart, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Liszt on the FIRST half of the program, then played the entire Kreisleriana by Schumann on the second half. The concert took place in the Marble Hall of the Mirabellplatz....ornate beyond belief, and the concert was played on a white Bosendorfer piano.

We headed out yesterday for Vienna, with a stop at the immense monastery at Melk. If you've read Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose, you know about this monastery....this is the library he based that book on. Still a working monastery and school, it's quite an impressive sight.

As we made our way into Vienna, we stopped for a tour of the Schonbrunn Palace...once again IMMENSE. We got a real sense of the daily life of the Habsburgs as we toured the living quarters there.

Our hotel in Vienna is right in the city center....you walk out the front door and bump right into the back of St Peterskirche. We had dinner and local wine along with music last night, then strolled home in the brisk air, window shopping the fine stores along the way.

Today we'll tour the Fine Arts Museum and a museum of rare musical instruments. Some plan to visit the Gustav Klimt museum while we're here....and I'm pretty sure there'll be quite a lot of shopping at the Christmas Markets!

Off to start the day.....I'll try to upload some photos before I go, but internet connections have been slow, so that may have to wait until tonight.

We're already starting to talk about where we'd like to go next year, so if you'd like to receive information about future trips, be sure to sign up on the left side of the page where it says News. This has been such a congenial group, I think many of us would like to travel together again.

Well, the bells of Peterskirche tell me it's 8 am, so I'd better head off to breakfast. Auf wiedersehn.....

Cheryl

Time Flies...

cdring — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:16:00 GMT

Well I hope you enjoyed seeing the pictures of Prague. Our second night in Prague a group of us attended a concert in the old St Nicholas Church....in yesterday's post it was the last picture. Heard a Mozart Serenade, Winter from the Four Seasons by Vivaldi, Bach's Oboe and Violin Concerto and some Christmas carols. We toured the old Jewish Quarter and Cemetery the next day and heard a stunning concert that night at the Rudolfinum....the Guarneri Trio played an all Dvorak program, including the Dumky Trio. We all agreed it was a highlight of the trip so far.

Before leaving Prague we made our way to Vysehrad Castle....this trip has been like traveling through Smetana's Ma Vlast. Every movement from that great cycle of tone poems has been a place we've seen. By the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul we saw Vysehrad Cemetery, which our host described as the Czech equivalent of Arlington National Cemetery. Many important Czech figures are buried there. We saw the graves of both Smetana and Dvorak.

We made our way from there to the amazing little town of Cesky Krumlov. It's a gorgeous little medieval town with the second largest castle complex in Europe. Our hotel, the Hotel Ruze, was built in the 1400's as a Jesuit monastery. The rooms have been furnished in style of that period, and all have wonderful views of the town, the castle or the river....sometimes all three! We toured the old church there and had dinner in a restaurant that used to be a jail!

Today we made our way to Salzburg and saw our first snow just as we crossed the Austrian border. We're off to a dinner and concert tonight, so I'm running out of time to write. More when possible!

Pictures!

cdring — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 07:53:00 GMT

I promised pictures of Prague...so here they are. No time to write now, but will share details of our concerts and tour of the Jewish Quarter later today.

The World's Most Beautiful City?

cdring — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 16:52:00 GMT

I'm prepared to cast my vote for Prague.

We arrived Saturday late afternoon to light rain and overcast skies. By the time we were taking our bus to the hotel, the skies had begun to clear and we were treated to our first view of this magical city. Cobblestone streets, beautiful old buildings from every period side by side in a lovely mix of styles. We have a congenial group of 27, not only from California, but from New Mexico and Colorado. We all gathered for a welcome dinner at the Cafe Louvre, where we ate hearty Czech food, drank the world famous Pilsner Urquell and sampled the herbal liqueur Becherovka. That was about all we were up for after our LENGTHY day of travel. We headed back to our hotel...a lovely old building that was once an insurance company where Franz Kafka worked! We shouldn't have been surprised by that...we're surrounded by history. After all, the NEW Town in Prague was built in 1348!

The Christmas markets are in full swing....and full of tourists. Today (Sunday) we spent the morning touring the Old Town and New Town areas with a very knowledgeable local guide, Janna. The area around the Charles Bridge is amazing...and once again we were treated to a period of lovely sun breaking through the clouds and glittering on the River Vltava....also known in German as the Moldau. Which is fitting, since we also visited the Smetana museum!

After lunch, part of the group headed off to visit the old castle area, while some of us decided to wander the markets and do our part for the local economy :) There are LOTS of concerts around town, so many of us are headed out to hear music tonight. I'm looking forward to hearing Vivaldi's Four Seasons in the beautiful old church of St Nicholas tonight. Will report on that tomorrow and hopefully be able to post pictures......how to decide which ones, tho? Everything here is beautiful.

Wish you were here!

Cheryl

Heading to Prague

cdring — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:54:00 GMT

Well, we're pretty excited about KXPR's first big European tour. We're heading out from San Francisco this afternoon, we'll be connecting in Amsterdam....then on to Prague! We'll certainly have some cold weather...and it looks like there may be a small chance we'll see snow. That would certainly set the holiday mood! Concerts, museums, and of course shopping are on the agenda, so I'll be checking back in to let you know how things are going. I hope we can start doing this kind of trip on a regular basis, so if you missed this one maybe you can join us next time! Be sure to sign up for emails about future trips and we'll keep you posted.

Cheryl